Marion Hutcheson Celebrates 95 Years
It is said that a life well lived is a legacy. This is true of Marion Aleta Witt Hutcheson, who celebrated her 95th birthday last June in a festive event attended by family and friends.
The Higgston resident has touched and influenced many people during her nine and a half decades, but she is modest about her impact on the world. When asked about her many talents, she prefers to steer the conversation in another direction. She would rather talk about her family than herself.
Marion admits that she has pursued a number of hobbies like art, quilting, piano, gardening, and baking, but denies that she was particularly adept at any of these pursuits. “I was not a great cook. I just made peas and cornbread,” she said of the many meals she prepared to feed her family. But others rave about her famous pecan and chocolate pies and sour cream pound cakes, her legendary green thumb, and her beautiful garden filled with flowers and fruit trees. Marion was also known for turning out many jars of jams and jellies made from the fruit harvested in her garden. For many years, Marion has been a member of the Ailey Garden Club and was recently honored by that organization on the occasion of her 95th birthday. She was also a faithful member of the Higgston Woman’s Club from 1948 to 2000. That organization has now disbanded.
Like many women of her generation, Marion said she simply did her best to be a good wife and mother and to bring up her two sons, Craig and Steve. It never occurred to her that being a gifted homemaker was anything out of the ordinary.
Born in Vidalia on June 20, 1928, Marion was the fourth child of Henry Castellaw Witt and Ethel Adams Witt. Marion’s father had come to Vidalia about 1916 where he played the violin for the silent movies. There, he met Ethel Adams, who was 15 years his junior and known for her beauty and kindness and for having at least 60 Adams first cousins. The Adamses were a pioneering family who settled in South Georgia in the early 1800s and whose network of kin has stretched outward from the borders of Toombs and Montgomery Counties. Henry and Ethel were married in 1917.
Henry’s family hailed from Warner Robins and Gordon. He was a gifted musician who played a number of instruments and toured with many bands across South Georgia. “The family holds with pride 120-year-old letters of invitation for musical events where he was called to entertain all over the state, and lore says, far beyond,” said Henry’s grandson Craig Wilkes, a retired Presbyterian minister now living in Columbia, South Carolina. Craig said that he has heard that his grandfather was invited to play with the band of the famous John Phillip Sousa, but that has not been confirmed.
Henry taught high school band in Adrian, Soperton and at Montgomery County High School which was then at Kibbee. “His ability with all musical instruments was, to say the least, at genius level,” Craig said. Marion recalls that her father was an impressive figure with piercing brown eyes that many called “Professor Witt,” and he wore a distinctive hat that designated him as a band director. She recalls hearing her father play the guitar as she grew up. “It was his favorite instrument. He could make a guitar talk,” she said, adding that she also remembers him playing the cornet as part of a band.
Marion arrived just ahead of “The Great Depression” during which her musician father found it difficult to find work. That is when the Witt family moved to Higgston to live in the Adams family home that Marion’s mother, Ethel, had inherited. The house had once been the home of Marion’s grandcontinued from page
parents, Charles M. and Mollie Hutcheson Adams.
After her husband’s death, Mollie married J.B. Palmer, and moved to Vidalia.
Marion grew up in Kibbee, along with her older siblings Hazel, Ethelyn, and Earl. She recalled many happy times in the little community, where she attended school. Her brother played basketball for the Montgomery County High School basketball team and Marion remembers him as a real character that was always joking and making people laugh.
The Witt children were widely known in Toombs and Montgomery counties.
The oldest daughter, Hazel, married Thomas “Tom” Collins; the second daughter, Mary Ethelyn, married W.G. “Bill” Durden; and the only son, Earl, married Frances Milligan. Craig recalled that the late Ray Tapley, who wrote for The Advance newspaper liked to refer to his uncle as “The Earl of Witt.” The Witt children stayed close throughout their lives. All of them lived in Higgston after they married. There was a 10year difference in Marion’s age and the age of her oldest sister, Hazel, who was therefore the main babysitter.
A vintage snapshot of the children taken on the back steps of their Grandmother Palmer’s house on Church Street in Vidalia beautifully illustrates the bond between the children. The photo shows Marion as a toddler protectively surrounded by her three siblings.
It was just after World War II when Marion married George Lennon Wilkes.
He had returned home from the war and wanted to farm.
They built a house in Higgston where they raised their sons, and where she and Lennon were together until his death in 1978.
Marion was to marry twice more, but was destined to outlive those husbands. She became the wife of widower and Toombs County agricultural agent Eston Daniels in 1981, but he passed away in 1989. “He was a wonderful person,” she said. In 1994 she married a man who was “probably a distant cousin,” Grable Hutcheson (her grandmother Mollie was a Hutcheson), who was a gifted high school teacher. But Marion was widowed once again in 1997. She said that each time she lost a husband she battled through grief and depression. That is when she began to take up hobbies and relied on her strong faith. She is still a member of Grace Community Presbyterian Church in Lyons.
Obviously, Marion is a survivor who has not only persevered through the hard times, but also celebrated the good things in life. Putting her faith in God first, she has focused on counting her blessings.
There is another saying about a life well lived: “It is a tribute to all.” In Marion’s case, considering how she has touched so many people, truer words were never spoken.
SISTERS-This vintage 1940s photo captures a moment in time with the Witt sisters, from left, Marion, Ethlyn, and Hazel.
YOUNGER DAYS – Marion and her first husband, George Lennon Wilkes, pause for a photograph during their early years together. They were married from 1948 until his death in 1978.
WILKES FAMILY-This 1958 photograph shows Marion holding son Steve, her husband Lennon standing next to her, and their older son, Craig, in front.
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION – Marion, center seated, celebrated her 95th birthday surrounded by family and friends, from left: son Craig Wilkes and his wife Vicki, friend Rob Roy McGregor, and cousin Marsha Thompson.
YOUNG MARION – Born in 1928, just ahead of “The Great Depression,” Marion Aleta Witt grew up with her three siblings in Kibbee.
